Vegetable materials such as roasted coffee beans and tea leaves incorporate volatile compounds which contribute to the flavor and/or aroma of a beverage prepared from the vegetable material. Those compounds are referred to in this disclosure as "aromas." The extraction, concentration and drying steps normally utilized in industrial production of soluble beverage powders such as "instant" coffee or tea typically result in some loss and degradation of the aromas. Accordingly, various efforts have been made to recover the aromas from the vegetable material at the beginning of the process, and then return the aromas to the product at or near the end of the process. However, the aroma recovery techniques heretofore available have not been entirely satisfactory. Typically, such techniques remove only a relatively small proportion of the aromas from the vegetable material or lose a significant portion of the aromas removed from the vegetable material.